Learning Orthographic Cognates and Non‐Cognates in the Classroom: Does Awareness of Cross‐Linguistic Similarity Matter?

Abstract

Some second language (L2) acquisition researchers have suggested that learners should be made aware of cross‐linguistic similarity for them to benefit from cognateness. To test this assumption, we ran two longitudinal classroom quasi‐experiments with Polish learners of English. We chose 30 Polish‐English cognates, 30 false cognates, and 30 non‐cognates matched on L2 frequency and concreteness and embedded them in exercises typical of English language teaching textbooks. Participants learned the words with their teachers in their classes at school. We manipulated the experimental group's awareness of orthographic cross‐linguistic similarity in awareness‐raising workshops. The results revealed that the participants had a higher chance of knowing cognates than other word types before the study. However, they acquired cognates embedded in exercises at the same rate as other word types. Also, the awareness‐raising manipulation, regardless of its intensity, had no additional effect on their acquisition of cognates and false cognates, indicating that awareness of cognateness did not boost learning cognates.

Exploring systematic orthographic crosslinguistic similarities to enhance foreign language vocabulary learning

“…Overall, the special status of cognates in the mental lexicon has been highlighted in a variety of studies. However, as discussed in recent work by Otwinowska and colleagues (Otwinowska & Szewczyk, 2019;Otwinowska et al, 2020), the majority of psycholinguistic studies were conducted with highly proficient bilinguals and/or adults (de Groot, 2011;van Hell & Tanner, 2012), which might differ from school settings (Tonzar et al, 2009). Furthermore, facilitative effects were much stronger for identical cognates (such as German and English wild) than word pairs with less orthographic overlap (Comesaña et al, 2012).…”

“…This presupposes that learners are explicitly and tacitly aware of the links between the languages in their repertoire and can deliberately utilize them (Jessner, 2008). Thus, as noted by Otwinowska et al (2020), awareness in this definition refers not only to the ability to notice cognates, but extends to a capability of reflecting upon systematic similarities, generalizing rules based on observations, and strategically transferring knowledge to new examples. In extension, encouraging learners to compare and contrast languages is believed to considerably boost students' vocabulary knowledge (e.g.…”

Costs and Benefits of Native Language Similarity for Non-native Word Learning

“…SLA studies conducted in more naturalistic contexts (e.g., classrooms) have also found advantages for learning cognates (e.g., Cunningham and Graham, 2000;Tonzar et al, 2009;Vidal, 2011;Otwinowska and Szewczyk, 2019;Puimège and Peters, 2019), but have produced more mixed results (e.g., Rogers et al, 2015;Otwinowska et al, 2020; see Otwinowska, 2015 for review). Some evidence suggests that cognate facilitation may be contingent on formal training in cognate recognition (Tréville, 1996;Dressler et al, 2011), suggesting that learners may not always be aware of formal similarities.…”

Better to Be Alone than in Bad Company: Cognate Synonyms Impair Word Learning

“…Other methods usually involve picture-association methods, where the L2 word is presented together with a picture of the concept it represents [ 36 , 37 ], which has been shown to produce a superior recall of the learned L2 words as compared to a similar situation with L1-L2 word pairs [ 38 ]. Nonetheless, and irrespective of the teaching method employed, it has been repeatedly shown that cognates are easier to learn than non-cognates in adults [ 30 , 31 , 33 ] and children [ 39 ], even if the learners are not intentionally made aware of the cross-linguistic similarity [ 40 ].…”